Purity of Heart

In a time of national danger, the prophet Joel called the people of Israel to have a conversion of heart and confidence in the Lord. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1430) refers to these words of the prophet in a section that speaks about interior penance. The Catechism teaches that, in line with the prophets before him, “Jesus’ call to conversion and penance…does not aim first at outward works, ‘sackcloth and ashes,’ fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion.” The paragraph goes on to say, in an image that calls to mind the preaching of Jesus himself: “Without this, such penances remain sterile and false.”